LONDON, Jan 15 Reuters Sterling slid on Monday in a riskoff trading day, ahead of a busy week for data with markets expecting Britain39;s employment and inflation figures to provide clues on when the Bank of England BoE will start loosening monetary policy.

With U.S. markets closed for a public holiday, European shares fell and government bond yields rose on warnings against premature rate cuts from the European Central Bank ECB.

Investors are awaiting a slew of UK economic data this week, including job figures on Tuesday, inflation data on Wednesday and retail sales numbers on Friday.

Risksensitive sterling fell 0.17 to 1.2729, but stayed within sight of its late December peak of 1.2825, which was the highest since August.

Against the euro , it slipped 0.15 to 86.02 pence, pulling back from a threeweek high against the single currency hit last week.

Sterling is moving lower amidst generalized risk negativity GBP remains a high beta play while markets likely speculate on nearterm data risks, said Jeremy Stretch, head of G10 FX Strategy at CIBC Capital Markets.

We would expect average hourly earnings, CPI, and retail spending to all undershoot expectations this week.

Money markets are pricing in around 130 basis points of interest rate cuts from the BoE by the end of the year, with a first cut likely in May, according to LSE Group data.

Stretch said that he expects the BoE to be slow to cut rates, with a likely first cut in August, as the central bank fears both…